Replacing the text betwen the square brackets (XP)

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Hi all,

I’ve got a huge text in Word XP, a scanned dictionary with a 1,000+ pages, and since the pronunciation of the words I find totally useless I’d like to get rid of that.

So could somebody plz tell me how do I replace everything between the square brackets, including them of course, with… well, nothing? With empty space, that is.

The square brackets, as I’m sure you do know, are reserved for some kinda wildcards or something, so it is a kind of problem.

Thanx,

Neno
neno.site.sh

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Am I right in thinking you’d like to delete the phonetic pronounciations that normally come after each word?

Is the phonetic text displayed in the same font used for the rest of the document or is it in a True Type phonetic font?

First, select just a couple of pages of the dictionary and paste them into a new document, just in case something goes wrong. Work on the copy for the rest of this.

If it is a true phonetic font, select ‘Edit, Find’ from the pull-down menu and click the ‘replace’ tab.
Click on the ‘More’ button to the right of the window.
Keep the ‘Find What’ box empty and select ‘Font’ from the ‘Format’ button.
Select the phonetic font from the list and click OK.
Back in the ‘Find And Replace’ window, make sure there is nothing in the ‘Replace with’ field.
Click ‘Replace’ and ensure the correct action is being performed. If this is OK, click ‘Replace All’ to perform the action for the whole document.

I hope this makes sense. Maybe I could have worded it better. Let me know if you need any further explanation.

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>Am I right in thinking you’d like to delete the phonetic pronounciations that normally come after each word?

Yes, you are.

>Is the phonetic text displayed in the same font used for the rest of the document or is it in a True Type >phonetic font?

It’s Times New Roman as well as the rest of the text, although it’s just a gibberish nonsense since it didn’t match the symbols from the book of course, and I’ve got nothing similar to the weird font used in the on-paper version of this dictionary. BTW, anybody knowing where to get a font like that? (I enclose a few examples of it in the attachment.)

>If it is a true phonetic font, select ‘Edit, Find’ from the pull-down menu and click the ‘replace’ tab.
>Click on the ‘More’ button to the right of the window.
>Keep the ‘Find What’ box empty and select ‘Font’ from the ‘Format’ button.
>Select the phonetic font from the list and click OK.
>Back in the ‘Find And Replace’ window, make sure there is nothing in the ‘Replace with’ field.
>Click ‘Replace’ and ensure the correct action is being performed. If this is OK, click ‘Replace All’ to perform the action for the whole document.

I see what you mean but since it’s not a “phonetic font,” whatever you meant by that, it wouldn’t work. In the meantime, I helped myself by replacing all the left square brackets ( [ ) with “qwert” and all the right ones ( ] ) with “zuiop” and then I replaced all the occurrences of the “qwert*zuiop” with empty space. However, that’s what I believe is called a kludge and I was hoping for a more elegant solution.

>I hope this makes sense. Maybe I could have worded it better. Let me know if you need any further explanation.

Thanx for trying. Pls let me know if you know where to find a freeware font like that one in the attachment. (It’s highlighted.)

Neno
neno.site.sh

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Hi Neno,

Glad to know you found a workaround for the problem. Who cares if it’s a ‘kludge’, so long as the end result is OK?

As for the font(s), try here: http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/wells/fonts.htm and scroll down a couple of pages. There’s a download hyperlink for all the fonts shown on the page in one zip file.

Cheerio.

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Fish, my man:

Found, installed, much obliged! (A little bit worried about the dough they ask for the font tho’… 😐 )

Oh well.

Thanx (I owe you one),

Neno
neno.site.sh

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Hi Neno:

Glad you found a solution. Here’s another one that saves a step.
Using Wildcards:
Find: [*]
Replace All: blank

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Oh yes, that’s what I’ve been looking for. Thanx Phil.

But where the heck did you find it? In the help file? I was pretty sure I searched it all the way through.

Neno
neno.site.sh

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Hi Neno:

It’s something I’ve known for some time. But I’ll tell you, I find it much harder to find the list of special operators with Word 2000 than with Word 6 or 7. You can’t find it by using “advanced search criteria” or “complex search criteria”. I can no longer easily find the list (except I have my own) & you can’t annotate the help files the way you could in W95. Progress.

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In Word2000, it’s very well hidden (even better in the German version, where they have used a translation for “wildcards” that I’ve never heard before ).
The main topic is called

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Thanks, Klaus. I actually have found it about 3-4 times, but I can never remember where (the phrase “fine tuning” doesn’t immediately come to mind as a search term). I have them all written in a Word document, in case I need to refer to them.

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